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| DOMINO in Hiva Oa |
HIVA OA
December 9, 2013
Atuona, Hiva Oa (Marquesas)
09°48.2 S - 139°01.6W
A volcanic crest etched against the azure sky; a verdant valley flanked by deep-green wooded slopes; a calm harbor concealed behind a “motu” (rock): Traitor’s Bay… so named because there was a time when local women would lure the poor visiting sailors to shore, only to see the hopeful souls be rounded up by the indigenous men who had been stalking their prey. Herman Melville landed here and related his own experience in his book, “Typee.”
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| Atuona harbor at low tide |
To JP’s disappointment and my relief, there was no vahine beckoning us on the beach. We dropped anchor in Atuona harbor, north of the yellow Xs marking the turning radius for the big ships “Aranui” and “Taporo” that regularly provision the islands of the archipelago. Snug in the mud, we could have held a hurricane.
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| Puamau Beach... very rough anchorage |
Off to town it was, a 4km walk up-hill, where the Gendarme barely glanced at our French passports, copied our USCG registration and let us fill out a notice of arrival. Satisfied, the affable Marquisean folded the notice in 3, asked us to put a stamp on it and to drop it in the mailbox. We’ll finish the documents when we get to Papeete. That was it!
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| Hiva Oa: The road of the crests |
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| 40-meter (120) sailing cat: our neighbor in several anchorage. Classy! |
In Atuona, the main town of Hiva Oa, try not to be run-over by the ubiquitous Toyota Hilux 4x4. The Marquesas benefit from generous subsidies from the French government and it’s evident that the economy is doing very well here. The prices for non-subsidized food are high, even for a simple dish of refried rice sold on the street ($10 per portion.) But we don’t expect to eat at restaurants here, for they are notoriously absent. The fresh baguette, however, is the best sold in the entire archipelago and for 60 francs (about 90 cents) you can have the most scrumptious breakfast in the world: crispy baguette!
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| Visiting the tikis in Puamau... this: a woman giving birth... imagination! |
Our visit to town of course included a stop at the cemetery to find the resting places of Paul Gauguin and Jacques Brel, followed by a visit of the Musee Gauguin (only replicas) and the Space Jacques Brel, the Belgium singer whose expressive voice infused our youth with the gray palette of Northern skies and the oppressive pathos of broken hearts. There is not much else to see in town, really. But it’s the encounters with the locals that make our travels special.
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| Hanamenu bay: couldn't anchor there, way too rough in this season |
Take doctor “Taute” Pascal, who is fulfilling a 1-year contract as physician for the public health department. He serves the 3 islands to the south: Hiva Oa, Tahuata, and Fatu Hiva. When he is not working at the hospital in Hiva Oa, our friend “Coco,” the water-taxi from Fatu Hiva, will take the doc on rounds to the other islands. That means hours of speed boats to reach isolated patients in bays that are sometimes so exposed to the open sea that the poor doc can only go to shore by jumping off the boat and swimming to land. What a life! Well, Dr. Pascal kindly opened his home to us and let us connect to his Internet, while his lovely wife Marie Laure opened up her salon floor to allow me to assemble my new quilt. Taute Pascal is an avid sailor… and would we take him on DOMINO to his next clinic in the island of Tahuata? Absolutely… that’s a story for the next blog, however!
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| Larry and Claire make us discover Puamau. Larry's tattoos are his whole life story |
Other encounter: Larry and Claire. Larry is a French militaire, actually a mason by trade, who has enlisted for 2 years with the SMA (Service Militaire Adaptè) to teach young military recruits to be masons. As JP was hitch-hiking his way to town, Claire stopped to pick him up. Where are you from, etc…. turns out that Larry and Claire are from Poitiers, our home-town. Fast-friends, of course, Claire came up with the next question, would we go to the Marquisean “Awakening” festival on the island of Ua Huka next week? Of course we would and we would be happy to take the young couple with us. The next day, Larry and Claire were taking us on a tour of Hiva Oa, to the sacred site of Puamau. The “kids” treated us to a BBQ on the beach and Larry revealed his new tattoo: a work of art on his back, from the renown tattoo-master Po-iti in Hiva Oa. The anchorage at Puamau is very rolly, though, and we were content to visit by car, an hour drive from Atuona, along dramatic cliffs. Oh, the vistas!
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| No real tattoo for JP - This silverback fern will have to do! |
We tried to visit other bays on the north-west coast: Hanamenu and Hanaiapa, hoping to find out what Earl Hinz had discovered 30 years before. But the swells were entering the bays and the surf breaking on the beaches, not a good place to be in this season. Again, December is time for the Northerlies… better luck in March!
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| Not very comfortable there.... but a beautiful ride |
The Marquiseans love their horses. JP is an accomplished rider but I’ve only ridden twice in my life, so it was no wonder that I was nervous when Paco handed me a beautiful, frisky black stallion. I only lasted 20 minutes on the animal who quickly figured out that I was a novice rider. Paco, a retired Special Forces Military and certified equestrian guide, had JP & I trade horses. While JP was playing Lone Rider on his bucking stallion, I was hanging on to my horse’s mane as we climbed the steep and narrow trail. I soon found myself breathless, not sure if it was from the spectacular vistas or from horse-riding exertion… No matter, Patricia (Paco’s wife) was waiting for us with home-made ice creams and sherbets, part of the line of “Momona”artisanal ices she has developed and distributes in the island’s stores. Try the caramel-salted butter!
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| Quilting in paradise |
Except for night shark-fishing, there is not much diving of fishing in Atuona. So we made some side trips to the next island: Tahuata… but that’s another story.
Until then…
